Former state GOP leader trashes Richardson in book

Oilman and former New Mexico Republican Party chairman Harvey E. Yates Jr. was the guest speaker Wednesday at the Republican Women of Otero County's monthly luncheon meeting.

Yates was at the meeting to talk about his book "Governor Richardson and Crony Capitalism," published by Intermedia Publishing Group.

He has been a prominent critic of Richardson's regulatory policies. Yates is especially critical of regulations involving the oil business. He was the state chairman of the Republican Party during Richardson's remaining two years in office of his second term.

Yates said the origin of the book started when he was the chairman of the state Republican Party.

"As I gathered information into this, little known 'Crony Capitalist Enterprise' became apparent to me," he said. "New Mexico has had a long, loving relationship with crony capitalism. Crony capitalism is a circumstance where the government decides the business of winners and losers. It's where contracts are awarded based not on what would be best for the people and not on who will render the lowest price, but based instead on the relationship of a politician with a business enterprise."

Yates said he believes, in this particular case, that the enterprise didn't sell anything to the government.

"They benefited because regulatory matters were courted in their favor," he said. "Their competition was disfavored. This book is about part of that business. I understand it's an esoteric business. What goes on there is not understood by most people.

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Yates said in New Mexico there were two types of businesses in waste disposal in the 1990s.

"One type was called the land farm," he said. "A land farm would take soil that was contaminated. The contaminated soil would be aerated in an effort to return that soil to use again. The other type of waste facility is a landfill. There were between 20 and 30 businesses that were land farms, but there were only three landfills that were authorized to take oil and gas waste. Landfills are essentially a pit."

Yates said he believes two businesses were given emergency landfill permits during the Richardson administration while the other companies were denied permits.

"The Pit Rule prohibited drill cuttings to be deposited at drill sites," he said. "In every other state -- Texas, Oklahoma and other states -- it's common practice. It's been a longstanding practice in New Mexico. Under the (Gary) Johnson administration, all pits at drill sites were required to be lined. We have a rule that allows burial at well sites, but all the pits have to be lined. What happened is drilling declined under the Richardson administration because we could no longer bury at well sites. We had to truck it several hundred miles to a landfill."

Yates said drilling declined and the government in New Mexico lost lots of money.

"We're two years into this administration (Gov. Susana Martinez)," he said. "They have been, for much of that time, working on changing the pit rule. What we lost in New Mexico is horizontal drilling for gas. Rigs were fleeing New Mexico because of the pit rule. We can calculate the loss to New Mexico if we make an assumption -- a conservative assumption and a Republican assumption, if Richardson had not tinkered with the problem -- drill rates and gas production would have simply stayed the same."